Although the current time standard NIST-F1 with accuracy of +1 or -1 second over 1m years was not that bad, I think the new time standard NIST-F2 is a grater one. If some applications can use three time greater accuracy, then it means that it is the best. Its accuracy of within +1 or -1 second over 3m years makes it a great achievement by NIST. Nice job NIST.

This is very interesting information. Personally I knew about the NITS-F1 but I would never have that it would be that accurate. Plus or minus a Second spread over a million years! Frankly that should be more than enough. Now the new F2 model clock has taken 10 years to develop only to increase that accuracy by another 100 million years. Please don't tell me that some guys were paid over the 10 years to develop something whose benefits will hardly be enjoyed anytime within the coming 1000 generations of humans.

I am just wondering how such a ultra high accuracy time standard can be used for time stamping the financial transactions or for that matter any event, becuase the time taken to receive the signal will be definitely longer .

I have always been fascinated by WWV. We had a radio that would receive it directly.

When WWVB got popular I got a module, I think it was from Parallax. The Antenna was so big I never used it. One of those projects that is waiting for, well to pardon the expression, waiting for the right time.

The Smithsonian Institution in Wash DC has had very interesting time standards exhibits over the years. It turns out, the way we tell time and keep time is a good representation of our technological SOTA.

Related to this, a year ago, the signal transmitted by WWVB was upgraded for theoretically easier reception for receivers far from Fort Collins:

That seems to have eluded the popular press, and worse, I've been finding it difficult or impossible to determine if new "atomic clocks" available today make use of this new phase modulated signal. Would be nice to know. As of now, I've had to rig an extra longwire antenna to my "atomic clock" sitting on the mantlepiece, on the East Coast, to get reasonably reliable reception of WWVB.

Difficulty in reception seems to have caused these radio clocks to disappear from retail stores where I live, in favor of utterly inadequate supposedly "automatic" clocks. Nothing "automatic" about this new breed. All they do is use a lithium cell to keep time when power is removed from the clock, instead of alkaline cells used previously. Big deal. They are very inaccurate.

One wonders why this sort of news never makes the news. Maybe if people knew about this stuff, it would stimulate demand for such clocks and watches, in parts of the country where they essentially don't exist.